Archive for April, 2016

We’ve seen a lot of CCW clothing come and go in recent years, one of the biggest problems we see is cost of manufacturing, changes in the market and poor marketing. So much of the CCW clothing is still too tactical to be low profile. One of the major reasons we became a dealer for Tru-Spec is when I personally ordered clothing for myself to try on, it was actually the same size and that Blackhawk and Woolrich Elite were. There are always fit and design differences and it’s very hard to make a shirt that fits everyone because tall and short sizes are what people really come in. When it comes to hot weather, much of the Country resorts to t-shirts and shorts and if you are IWB or OWB you have to be careful you aren’t printing which can and does have all kinds of ramifications.

In regards to printing, we have people constantly expect us to give them a magic holster that is comfortable and doesn’t print, but our response is always, you have to “dress” to the firearm that you wish to carry. If you are looking for an extremely lightweight and breathable CCW shirt, definitely the Tru-Spec Cool Camp Shirts, which to sum up quickly, is a good cut, for CCW. The Cool Camp Shirts are a 2nd version that Tru-Spec has made, we’re hoping to see more of this because this is the closest thing to any of types of products the now discontinued Woolrich Elite Series shirt inventory had.

There are plenty of different ways to transport a firearm or even store them, and often it comes down to matching the cost of the gun case to the value of the firearm. Hard Cases like Pelican and SKB are very nice but they are bulky and hard to get in and out of a trunk. Some gun cases are very low profile and sometimes that’s very important in this day and age. Even police are buying rifle cases like this so people don’t panic when they see them going to and from training. What’s in that case? Sometimes it’s best not to announce it and we definitely lean towards Elite Survival Systems with the Covert Operations Gun Cases and the Elite Survival Stealth Rifle Backpack.

We see plenty of sales data that tell us that Allen Gun Cases and Bulldog Gun Cases also have their niche and they are not all that expensive. I’m a big fan of gun socks and simple gun cases when dealing with shotguns, lever actions and long guns with and without optics. You just have to keep in mind that slamming the brakes on in a car can slam your guns around when you are transporting them from one place to the other and scope turrets and barrels can be damaged from these. Another thing to consider, that will cost you more is buying Made in the USA gun cases which we often find are better quality.

One thing I learned shooting IDPA was that there are lots of things you can do to your firearm or with your gear, or even your training that can give you a split second improvement to your proficiency. In competition shooting, those half seconds add up and can mean winning or losing. In self defense, it means living or dying. We don’t need to make CCW guns into competition guns because from what I heard, that is something that can be used against you in court, but having a holster you can get your gun out of quickly and magazine pouches that you can quickly access for reloading is important. There are a lot of magazine base plates for 1911s from Wilson Combat that will great for competition because it will help you speed up magazine changes but can also cause snagging or hangups of clothing if you are using them for CCW. There are options that not flush fitting but still give you a bit of a bite so it’s all a balancing act, but if you are using a Glock the Vicker’s Tactical Glock Magazine base plates are probable something you might want to upgrade to for less than $20 that are not too drastic.

One rule of thumb for magazines is that they should drop freely, but depending on the situation you are in, sometimes you can rip them out fast than gravity lets them fall out. Tango Down Vicker’s Tactical Glock Magazine base plates come in several colors, Blue, Orange, Flat Dark Earth, Black and Tan, we also have them available for not just Glock Firearms, but Smith & Wesson M&P and Springfield XD. You won’t need any major tools to be able to change the floor plates but if you are a Glock owner, having the Glock tool might make it easier to replace the Glock floor plates. We also recently added the Glock 43 Tango Down

The future of the firearm industry is going to be with the firearms that are modular. The Sig P320 and the AR15 Carbine. It’s hard to find a decent gun shop that actually sells a lot of accessories because the truth of the matter is you really need to know the market and what accessories are worth selling. The first thing you need to do, whether you are building an AR15 or you are buying one is if the buffer tube is a Commercial or a Mil-Spec, you can’t guess at this, otherwise, you’ll find out the stock wobbles or that you can’t even get it on. There are ways you can tell just by looking at it vs. having to measure the dimensions of the tube.

Even though there are a lot of changes with handguards and grips, we can clearly see that the Magpul CTR Carbine Stocks are still the #1 rifle stock. It’s just the best price range, you can still add cheek weld or stock extensions on it and you also can adjust the length to something shorter which is especially important if you are wearing AR500 Armor or some time of plate carrier. Making sure you have the right stock length will greatly affect your proficiency. Then from there you can decide on what type of handguard or grip you should choose, it has been confirmed that Magpul has discontinue the Magpul MOE handguard and is now only making the Magpul M-Lok so be aware that those take two different rail sections.